Hamburger Steaks (Oh yum!)

Growing up, we always loved Mama’s hamburger steaks. There was nothing like coming home and smelling the onions bubbling in there with the generous hamburger steak patties and knowing we were in for a hearty and delicious supper. I liked mine with extra onions, my sister liked hers without any at all, and Daddy liked whatever Mama put on his plate.

This is a simple recipe and uses the family favorite: ground beef. You know, in the age where we have entire networks devoted to nothing but food, we have surprisingly few tv peeps using ground beef. This is all good and well, of course, but sometimes I think the food channels have greatly overestimated our grocery budgets :).

I try to bring you ground beef recipes every so often because I know how much I rely on it in budget friendly main courses and I’m happy to tell you that when my Quick Fix Supper series starts on Southernliving.com, I will be bringing you even more great ground beef recipes. ~grins proudly~ (it will start soon, and I’ll keep you posted and let you know where to go to watch each episode).

Since I lost everything in my refrigerator and freezers during the days without power following the tornadoes, I was thrilled to get ground beef last week and this is the first thing I made. They were just as good as I remembered growing up and as I’m typing this post up I’m really wishing I had more fresh ground beef in the fridge right now. Maybe you’ll get to make them tonight and I’ll follow the smell and show up at your doorstep. ~grins and knocks~

You’ll need: Ground beef (or chuck, or lean ground beef), all purpose flour (but self rising will work just as well for this), beef broth (or water as a substitute) and a sweet onion (such as vidalia).

If you like, you can also season your ground beef with some seasoned salt or whatever else you’re in the mood for.

Have fun, don’t stress, and make it your own.

Shape your hamburger patties into doughnut shapes.

I’m just making three but you can make however many you’ll need. The reason we shape them into doughnut shapes (which you don’t have to do, of course) is that it helps the meat to cook more evenly and as they cook and shrink up that hole gets filled up anyway.

Now we’re going to take our hamburger patties and just dip them in flour on each side….

Only I forgot to get a picture of that so instead you get a pic of the Royal wedding party assembled on the balcony.

But WAIT

This isn’t just ANY Royal Wedding pic, this is a pic of my cat, Teaspoon, waving from the balcony along with the happy couple(bottom left, in between the bridesmaids)!

You see, our power was out for several days after the tornadoes and I wasn’t able to watch the royal wedding so sweet little Teaspoon decided to hop on a plane and take part on my behalf. Obviously, they were very impressed by her! Check out that wave ~waves back to Teaspoon proudly~ You can click on the photo to make it larger and get a better look at how suave “little t” looks.

Remember, you are supposed to dip each side in flour but I don’t have a picture of that.

Now we’re gonna add our patties to a skillet which is on medium heat.

You may want to add a tablespoon or two of oil to the skillet and let it heat beforehand if you have a really low fat ground beef (such as lean ground beef or ground chuck) or if your nonstick skillet isn’t quite as nonstick as it used to be.

Let those brown a few minutes on each side.

Then add your sliced onions to the pan.

Cook those until they start getting a bit soft and brown on the edges.

At this point you can drain off and discard the grease if you like.

Now pour in your beef broth (or water).

(I’m only using about a cup here)

Cover and let cook for another ten minutes or so, until your patties are cooked completely through and no longer pink in the center.

When it’s done it’ll look something like this.

Now I like to scoop out my hamburger steaks and then get my onions out with a slotted spoon to serve.

Enjoy!

Hamburger Steaks

Ingredients

Ground Beef (can use lean, ground chuck, etc)

1 Cup Beef Broth

All Purpose Flour

Vidalia or other sweet onion, sliced

Instructions

Heat one or two tablespoons of oil in a large nonstick skillet. Press ground beef into doughnut shaped patties (the hole in the center will allow it to cook more evenly and will fill in as they shrink during cooking). Dip each patty into flour on both sides and place in hot skillet over medium heat. Cook for a few minutes on each side, until browned. Scoot patties to one side and add onions to skillet. Stir and cook for a few minutes until lightly browned. Pour in 1 cup beef broth and cover. Allow to cook until meat is no longer pink in the center, about ten minutes.

I have cooked this dish since I first saw it on your site, Christy. It has become a family favorite and is asked for quite often. I do add mushrooms, though. I’m fixing it tonight with corn on the cob, baby limas, sliced tomatoes and mac and cheese.( I know, too much starch, but I will cook most anything my picky eater will swallow!) Sometimes I fix it with fried okra, mashed potatoes, crowder peas or blackeyed peas, but for some reason, I always, always have sliced tomatoes with it! I have gotten so many great recipes from you site. Seems that I see your name and/or picture everywhere these days! Congratulations on all of your success and all that is to come..

This is the yummiest looking recipe for hamburger steaks I’ve seen. I will be trying this in the next couple of days! Can you tell me what onions are good sweet ones, we don’t have vidalia available in stores right now. (Nothing better than vidalia though!) Thanks for your help.

This was always a favorite of my kids growing up. Still have it often, in fact, its on the menú tonite along with mashed taters, biscuits and a saladI also like to add mushrooms with the onions and sometime brown gravy. Love your recipes and heart warming stories, and especially your daily inspirations.

Great minds and all that! I woke up thinking about making hamburger steaks for supper tonight. It’s been awhile since I’ve made them, but was thinking how good they would be with mashed potatoes and green beans and some biscuits. And then lo and behold here you are with this post. It’s a sign from God that He is mighty pleased with this menu and I need to make these. OK, well I didn’t really have an epiphany from God, but I know my hubby will enjoy.
Thanks Christy for all you do and for all your encouragement each day. Your Southern Plate family is very fortunate to have you!

I laid out hamburger to thaw this morning,not knowing what I was going to make with it and now I know,thanks to you.I’m just sorry I have to wait till supper.Lawdy,lawdy,miss clawdy,that picture is making mouths water all over the internet!!

Seems that my momma and your momma followed the same recipe for hamburger steak, Christy!!

Meanwhile, not to be an alarmist, but I was alerted to your statement, “…if your nonstick skillet isn’t quite as nonstick as it used to be.” If anyone is using such a utensil, GET RID OF IT *NOW*!! Round file that puppy immediately!

The coating used for “non-stick” cookware is all fine and good… As long as it remains IN the pan! When it starts to show gouges [from not using wood/nylon/bamboo] or you can see the metal beneath the coating showing through, that is an indicator that the coating – and its scary chemicals! – are likely sloughing off and leeching into your food! Time to head to Wal-Mart for a new one… or, for a few bucks more, just get a good Lodge iron skillet and season it yourself! Oh, and NEVER put non-sticks in the dishwasher! The chemicals in DW detergent spell death to the coating as well… AND throw said chemicals all over the rest of your dishes/flatware, etc. in the cycle with it! It’s also best to not “nest” the non-sticks in the cupboard, either; hang them on a pot rack, taking care not to let them bang against each other. I have a somewhat inexpensive set of T-Fal that still not sticking with a solid coating after more than four years!

Mrs. Christy,
I just love all your recipes! I search online all the time for good, country recipes and you have the best by far!! I’m not into to cooking all that fancy fancy stuff and that’s about all I see online. Keep up the awesome work! I can’t wait to be able to get your cookbooks

Made this for dinner last night and LOVED it!!! Shared it on my FB wall and mt friend is making it for dinner tonight! I’m SO looking forward to dinner tonight because I made enough for leftovers! Thanks Christy!

Grew up on these! Thought my Gram created the recipe. Nothing any better than a simmered hamburger steak smothered in any kind of onions I have in the house! Best with mashed potatoes and of course corn. Who needs a hamburger bun when you have a monster burger on your plate.

My mother-in-law made something called Penny-Wise Steak. I have been making this for 38 years and counting. Ground chuck, chopped onion, cracker crumbs, egg, salt and pepper and a little milk. Mix all and shape into oval patties. I cook them on my George Foreman grill. Served with mashed potatoes and brown gravy and corn or mixed vegetables, they are a perfect comfort food! You can add ketchiup instead of the milk, shape into oval patties and it tastes more like individual meatloaves.

Used to work out, when I had money I ate at the restaurant, go to meal hamburger steak, it got when I walked in the door the waitress (owners wife) would put in my order. Still love it! Mom would cut a chunk off the hamburger and fry it, always fried onions, and usually potatoes, whatever other veg and she made gravy from the drippings in the pan. Best meal other than a bowl of large limas which she called butter beans. Those were served with chopped fresh onions, and bread, biscuits or cornbread depending on what she had or wanted to make,of course lots of butter.

Christy, I love the fact that when you post on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Pintrest as many of us only subscribe to your newsletter and not the other things. Thank you for looking out for all of us. You and Katy making paper chains reminds me of when I was little. Paper chains, stringing popcorn, using tin snips to cut ornaments from tin can lids, many other beautiful ways of making the Christmas tree that was cut from the hillside a beautiful tree. I miss those simple times when Christmas was a joy and all about honoring God instead of a burden from buying gifts. We always made our gifts.

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